National Women Physicians Day: Strengthening the Pathway for Women Physicians in Neuroscience

National Women Physicians Day, observed each year on February 3, recognizes the achievements, leadership, and lasting impact of women in medicine while highlighting the ongoing work needed to achieve equity across the profession. In neurology, where women continue to expand their presence in clinical practice, research, and academic leadership, the day serves as both a celebration and a call to action to address persistent gaps in representation, advancement, and opportunity.

In honor of the occasion, Claire Henchcliffe, MD, DPhil, Chair of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine, movement disorders specialist, and internationally recognized Parkinson disease researcher, shares her perspective. With a career spanning academic leadership, translational research in novel therapeutics, and national service roles supporting the advancement of women in neurology, Henchcliffe reflects on mentorship, leadership development, and the structural changes needed to ensure long-term success for women physicians in the neurosciences.

National Women Physicians Day

Claire Henchcliffe, MD, DPhil: I’ve had the privilege of training at some of the top universities in the world, and observing what I thought worked, or didn’t work, in those leaders has been immensely valuable. Also, I started my medical career after some years spent in the lab, and I think that later launch helped me to trust my own judgment more. My best way forward has generally been when I followed the path I thought was the right one for me, and stayed open to new experiences, even if uncomfortable. I think as professional women, we need to build strong networks and I’ve been extremely lucky to find myself working at a time when earlier women leaders had broken down at least some of the barriers – now it’s our turn.

As Chair of Neurology at UC Irvine I've had the opportunity and support to expand on all three pillars of our mission: the clinical; the research; and the education. To provide conditions for long term success for women in each of these areas it's been important to keep a laser focus on equity. That means making sure women are considered for new opportunities, new roles and responsibilities, and further career development. It’s also important for all our faculty and trainees to ask for what they need, rather than wait for it to be offered. Sometimes making that ask can be hard, so I therefore think it’s really important to foster open communication, promote negotiation, and listen

The barriers to women in research are well known and have been known for decades. There’s still bias, but there are some actions we can all take to help mitigate that. For example, making sure we include amazing women researchers and academics to present at conferences, local symposia, and grand rounds. We can make sure as leaders we pay ample attention to research career development, with opportunities for additional training where appropriate, inclusion in grant applications, and strong mentorship. We can make sure meetings are held when everyone can attend. The AALN now helps women on the leadership path in particular, with formal mentoring programs.

My research has focused on Parkinson's disease including developing new novel therapeutics such as stem cell based interventions. While there are more men than women with Parkinson's disease, that should never mean that we neglect differences based on sex or gender in diagnosis in treatment. And if we don’t enroll a good number of women into clinical trials, it lessens the impact of that research. I’ve heard some hypothesize that women have not enrolled into more invasive trials as they may be more risk averse – but women have babies, and that is certainly not being risk averse?

Effective mentorship for women in neurology can and should take multiple forms. In addition to the more traditional, and valuable, one-on-one mentorship, developing a strong network, a “council of wisdom” if you like, has been invaluable in my own development. I think one way to do that is through more formal programs. Many institutions, like ours at UC Irvine, provides opportunities for networking, research and leadership training. It's up to me as chair to make sure that our women neurologist have the time, and funding if needed, to participate. I love being personally involved in such programs, and participate s “chair mentor” for the AALN, as well as AAN programs such as Women Leading in Neurology.

It's an incredibly exciting time to be in the clinical neurosciences. As president-elect of the AALN and also a member of the ANA Board I'm privileged to spend time learning from exceptional leaders, and developing a national view of the field. We have made progress in increasing the number of women leaders, in our field, but there’s a long way to go! I would say one urgent change is to stop the leaky pipeline. So many of our early career women physicians and researchers are enthusiastic about the challenges and the opportunities they see ahead and face them with energy and innovation. We need to listen to their voices, and have zero tolerance for inequity. If we are to achieve proper representation of women leaders in our field, we need to be proactive as current leaders, to recognize and actively cultivate women leaders of future neurology.